Philadelphia Olympic Tri - 06/26/11

Continuing the trend of being behind on blogging... this entry has undergone a few revisions since I started drafting it.  It was crazy long... I deleted some of the non-race-specific content that could easily get a post of its own and will (hopefully) get around to writing those at some point.  

My fourth Philly Tri has come and gone.

It was another early day that started with my dad knocking on the door yelling, "Runners.... take your mark!"  It was 3:18am.  Seriously, why do I love this sport so much??? :)

My dad and Godfather accompanied me to the race.  In the parking area, I got my bike assembled, put the aero bottle on and filled it with my electrolyte drink, and double-checked that I had all my gear.  It's a bit of a walk to the transition area, and about halfway there, I decided to make a quick porta-potty stop.  I leaned my bike up against a fence, but when I came out, my godfather was holding the bike and informed me that another racer had leaned her bike behind mind, and when going to remove it, knocked my bike over.  All but a few drops of my electrolyte drink had spilled out of the aero bottle.  I'm not sure if it was the shock or if it was just that early in the morning that my brain wasn't turned on yet, but it took me a good minute or two to process this bit of information.  I kept looking at the liquid running away down the street and the empty aero bottle.  I had brought extra wheels and extra goggles, but no extra electrolyte drink.  Crap crap crap!  

When I got to transition, I checked around for sports drinks, but all I could find was water.  I refilled my aero bottle and tried not to think about the 210+ calories I would not be able to take in on the bike.  I tried to convince myself that the missing calories would probably have a bigger mental effect than physical. 

Since my bike had fallen component-side down, I waited in line for the mechanic to take a look at it to make sure everything was ok.  I had tried shifting it a few times, and it seemed alright to me, but since my bike maintenance/fixing skills are essentially non-existent, I figured it would be best to have an expert check it out.  

Luckily, my bike was fine.  While I was waiting around, I heard multiple announcements that the swim would NOT be wetsuit legal: the water temperature was 78.3F... a mere 0.3 degrees too warm.  Another frustration - while I have no idea how much time/energy the wetsuit really saves, in my mind, it shaves minutes off my swim :) 

I hurried up to set up my transition area and hopped on the bus to the start line.  The swim is all downstream, so there are school buses that transport athletes to the starting area.  I was cutting it a little close on time due to my search for electrolyte drinks and then waiting for the mechanic, so when I got to the starting area, I didn't have any time for a swim warm-up.

After the pros started, we had 10 minutes until our wave went off, so I had some time to warm up then which was a relief.  I positioned myself at the back of the field.  The swim start was not chaotic for me, but I still bumped into a few more people early on than I expected to.  This was a good thing though, because it meant I wasn't instantly left in the dust :)  The swim was generally uneventful.  I managed to swim in a relatively straight line, I had a few people near me the whole time, and I think I did pretty well negotiating the one right-hand turn into shore.  Swim time = 24:22, a nice PR.

Looking at my watch, as always!

I felt the fatigue from a hard swim as I ran into transition and grabbed my bike and helmet.  I had been expecting to see a mostly empty bike rack, and I was relieved to see there were still at least 5 bikes left after I took mine.  I was the only one running out of the transition chute at that time, so I was able to actually do my "running" mount though I will say it was a very slow run!  

The bike course is 2 loops.  On the first lap, it was only the pros and elite amateurs, so it was very open and there were times when I couldn't see anyone else ahead of me.  It was nice for a change to just focus on cycling, and not on watching out for/passing other riders.  Also, I knew that any girl I saw in that first lap was competition - there was no guess work or trying to see the age on her calf.  There's a hairpin turn about 2 miles into the course, and I saw that there were 2 girls not that far ahead of me.  I set my sights on catching them, but it wasn't until the second lap that I finally did.  When I was starting my second lap, the first waves of age groupers were starting their first lap of the bike course, so the course became more crowded.  I was starting to get discouraged I hadn't caught any other girls from my division on the bike, but in the last 2-3 miles I passed 3 or 4 more elite girls which was a nice little boost of confidence going into the run.  Bike time = 1:12:36, avg 20.4 mph - my strongest discipline of the day.

Any confidence I picked up on the bike was quickly lost on the run.  The thing that stands out in my mind about the Columbia run is how great my legs felt off the bike.  That was definitely not the case here - my legs felt heavy.  I didn't have the energy I remembered having at Columbia, either.  Within a minute or two out of transition, two girls had already passed me.  I tried to keep up, but I couldn't hold their pace, so I hoped I could find my stride and my running legs would show up soon.  The running legs I was hoping for did not show up, and I watched my mile splits get slower on my Garmin despite the flat course.  More elite amateurs passed me - I would try to keep up, but would immediately realize I couldn't keep their pace.  Somewhere around mile 3, I saw a Pro who was doing a cool-down walk/jog and she saw me and yelled something like, "you can do it, lady!" which was pretty cool to hear.  

Note to Self...
Running form improvements to be made: Tuck elbows in and pick feet UP! 

My pace continued to drop off in the second half.  I felt like I should have more motivation to push myself harder, but I just couldn't dig it up.  Coming up on the 6 mile marker, I realized that a girl who had been gaining on me throughout the run was right behind me.  I refused to get passed at this point in the race, so I put my head down and gave it everything I had to beat her to the finish line by 3 seconds.  Run time = 47:27, 7:39/mile - my worst discipline of the day.  

My overall time was 2:28:28, a ~3.5 min Oly PR and ~13.5 min faster than what I did on this course last year (though it was actually a run-bike-run event last year)... Annnnnnd I was 17/21 female elite amateurs, so while I certainly wasn't taking any awards home, I met my goal of not finishing last.  I know I should have been ecstatic with a PR, but I will admit, there was a bit of sulking immediately after the race (this disappeared after a massage and some food).  I had been hoping for a 2:25 or faster and had thought a 1:10-or-better bike split and a 45-or-better run split were both in my reach.  Maybe the reason I felt a little down at the finish was because it ended with the run - getting passed by 1/3 of the field is rather demoralizing.  Setting realistic expectations for myself is something I need to work on.

All in all, I am able to say now that I'm happy with this race.  If I had raced in my age group instead of the elite amateur division, I would've podiumed - but I would not trade this experience for an age group medal or trophy.  My goal in triathlon is to see how far I can go, and the only way I'm going to get there is to challenge myself by racing against the best.

Racing in the Elite Amateur division was a really good opportunity for me, and I'm grateful for it.  It was definitely an experience in mental toughness.  It was also a learning experience:  I have now devised several contingency plans for avoiding a repeat of the spilled gatorade debacle.  It has taught me that I need to think of some other "what if" race day scenarios and how to mitigate them.  It was also a learning experience in that it showed me how easily I let myself get rattled by the spilled drink and being rushed through transition set-up.  I learned how I need to work on being tougher mentally, and not getting down on myself when a part of the race (the run, in this case) doesn't go as anticipated.  I like to believe that these little pieces of things I'm learning will fit together to one day make me stronger, both on and off the triathlon courses.